10 things you need to know today

A
gaucho is unseated by an unbroken or untamed horse during Creole
week celebrations in Montevideo, Uruguay.Reuters/Andres
Stapff

Here is what you need to know.

Short selling is back in China. Reuters reports that
35 brokerage firms in China were cleared to allow short selling,
or as BI Australia's David Scutt explains, "the sale of a
security not owned by an investor, done in the belief that the
price will fall, enabling the short seller to buy the stock back
at a lower level for profit." The ban on the practice was
put in place in August to try to stop the 27% plunge in Chinese
stocks during the month. With short selling back, the Shanghai
Composite fell 1.6%.

Taiwan cut rates. Taiwan's central bank lowered its
key rate 12.5 basis points to 1.50%. This was the third straight
quarterly rate cut, and it was expected by 25 of 26 economists
surveyed by Bloomberg. Thursday's decision was made to try to
jump-start a slowing export sector, which is starting to weigh on
the labor market. The New Taiwan dollar ended weaker by 0.2% at
32.609 per dollar ahead of the announcement.

Two of Italy's biggest banks are merging. According
to the Financial Times, Banca Popolare di Milano and Banco
Popolare have agreed to merge, creating the country's
third-largest bank. The merger comes after recent comments from
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who called for the country's
banks to merge to boost profits and lending. Italy's banking
system is saddled with nonperforming loans worth about €300
billion ($335 billion), 17.3% of outstanding loans.

Yahoo's entire board might be out. The activist
investor Starboard Value is plotting the unprecedented move of
dumping Yahoo's entire board. According to a letter cited by The
Wall Street Journal, the fund will soon announce its intention to
"nominate nine directors to Yahoo's board." Starboard
believes the board has "continually failed to live up to
their own promises" and "shouldn't be trusted," the letter
reportedly says.

Wall Street deal makers are having their worst quarter since the
financial crisis. Investment banks have raked in
$12.8 billion in equity, debt, loan, and advisory fees this
year. This marks a 36% decline compared with the same period last
year and is the lowest since the first quarter of 2009, according
to Dealogic. Equity-capital markets revenue is down 55%
year-over-year, while high-yield bond revenue is off 70%
YoY.

Credit Suisse's CEO took a huge pay cut to work at the
bank. Tidjane Thiam took a 70% pay cut by deciding
to leave Prudential for Credit Suisse. Thiam was paid a full-year
salary of 1.71 million Swiss francs ($1.75 million) during his
first six months at the bank, with a bonus of 2.86 million francs
($2.93 million). His $4.68 million payout was well below the 16.5
million francs ($16.7 million) he received during his final year
at Prudential. Shares of Credit Suisse are down 40% since Thiam's
arrival.

Markets around the world are closed on Friday.
Stock markets around the world are closed in observance of Good
Friday. The US bond market will get an early start to the
weekend, closing at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Stock markets around the globe are lower. Aside
from the weakness in China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-1.3%) lagged
overnight. In Europe, France's CAC (-1.9%) is the worst
performer. S&P 500 futures are down 9.75 points at 2,019.00.

Earnings reports continue to trickle out.
Accenture and Finish Line are among the names reporting ahead of
the opening bell. GameStop is the notable releasing its quarterly
results after markets close.

US economic data remains light. Initial and
continuing claims and durable orders will be released at 8:30
a.m. ET. Then, at 10:30 a.m. ET, natural-gas inventories are
reported. The US 10-year yield is lower by 1 basis point at
1.87%.